Any bank or commercial lender who extends a loan based on the applicant's self-reported value of the properties is a moron and should be out of the banking business today. Any lender with half a brain would know that responsible lending standards require a third-party appraisal on the properties in question.
This is why the judge in this farce of a case had to issue a summary judgement instead of going to trial ... because if it had gone to trial, we would have been treated to the spectacle of senior officers and C-suite people from top commercial lenders sitting on the witness stand and explaining how they breached their fiduciary duty to their companies and shareholders by extending the loans in the first place.
I won't argue that, of course, but isn't that an admission that Trump took advantage of this, for years (decades)? Do you honestly believe he didn't know what the square footage of his own property was? I won't say that's impossible, I'd just suggest it's unlikely. An obscure property, perhaps, but his own residence?
the judge in this farce of a case had to issue a summary judgement instead of going to trial
I'm not agreeing with the actions of the judge, or whether this is criminal or not, but rather the question of what Trump did is ethical, or not. I know many don't care about that, anymore, but I do. If you will lie about one thing, you will lie about something else.